Kitchen vinegar, alcohol vinegar of 8° contains 8% acetic acid of which 40% is carbon. This vinegar therefore contains 3.2% carbonFor the past month or so I've been working on stabilizing my nutrients. My 9-month-old tank is admittedly quite overstocked, and I also feed quite heavily, so keeping nutrients in check has been a bit of a challenge. Nitrate particularly has been difficult to bring to a more manageable level. I currently sit at 50 ppm and perform weekly 15-20% water changes to keep it there. My Phosphates have been stable for a couple of weeks since introducing PhosGuard at 0.15, which I'm mostly happy with. I also run a refugium, although my Chaeto doesn't grow as well as I had hoped.
So with all of that above, I decided to implement Carbon dosing to reduce/stabilize my nitrates without having to do such heavy water changes. I am not as much concerned with a specific number, but more want to ensure whatever that number is, that it stays relatively stable.
So far I'm dosing 35ml of Vinegar per day spread out across two hours from lights on at 10 am until about 12 pm and increasing it by about 5ml per week and testing daily to track any trends. So far I haven't noticed much change in my Nitrates, although my corals are extremely happy.
While Vinegar is being added to my system, my skimmer level immediately begins to rise and continues until the Vinegar dosing is complete, resulting in an extremely wet (almost clear) skimmate. This leads me to wonder whether or not I should be turning my skimmer off and allowing the bacteria to consume the Vinegar or is this an indication that the Skimmer is picking up that bacteria right away?
I'm curious about this as I want to make sure I'm exporting the bacteria correctly and not adding more Vinegar to the system unnecessarily. Would love to hear from some experienced folks in this area to know if what I'm observing is expected.
To assimilate one gram of nitrogen, 15.17/0.032 = 474 ml of alcohol vinegar 8° is needed.
To assimilate the nitrogen of one gram of nitrate, 474 x 0.226 = 107 ml of alcohol vinegar 8° is needed
And all other minerals and building materials needed for growth.
Phoshate is removed by chemicals, how the nutrient balance is maintained?
To remove the same amount of ammonia-nitrogen using heterotrophic growth 40 X more growth is needed compared to autotrophs. 40 x more minerals are needed. What happens if the building materials are used up in the environment of corals.? Corals are able to manage the carbon and nutrient availability in their holobiont producing so called mucus. No panic! But how they will keep on doing it if surrounded by free organic carbon?
The use of carbon-hydrates, including vinegar, may kill. ref: CMF De Haes 2016 - 2018
Fast growing heterotrophic bacteria do not use nitrate-nitrogen to grow fast, most very fast growers are not able to use it. Normally heterotrophic bacteria retrieve carbon braking down organic waste this way producing the minerals needed for their own growth and for growth powered by sunlight which will clear the water, restore the C/N balance and the buffering capacity . What happens if bacteria are provided with too much organic carbon for free? And a skimmer is removing the organics constantly leaving inorganic ammonia behind?
A fish releases +-85% of his food as waste but not before braking down most proteins which leads to the release of +85% of the nitrogen present in the food in the form of inorganic ammonia. What happens with the ammonia if the organic waste ends up in the skimmer without being broken down and only available minerals can be used for new growth? How comes Chaeto is not be able to flourish?
You do feed heavily. Good nutrient management starts with what is going in. It is not so the amount which is most important but the composition., the C/N ratio of feed. Using high protein food will lead to a high nitrate production and in the case this is a good thing. The minerals and nutrients needed for Chaeto to grow probably end up in the skimmer, still being part of the organic waste and are bound to chemicals.
You do have a refuge, why not use it en let light energy clear the water for you? Al you have to do is harvest growth. And maybe review the use of the skimmer. Adding carbon-hydrates ? Only if you exactly know what you are doing and what you can and may expect. Clearing the water using growth in combination with a skimmer needs active management of available nutrients. The removal rate of a skimmer is unknown, which makes active growth-management very difficult. In the case NOT using a skimmer is a better option.